Next year, it will be 50 years since the National TB Program began in Indonesia and 26 years after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared tuberculosis (TB) a global health emergency.

Nonetheless, TB kills more than 4,400 people worldwide daily — more than malaria and HIV/AIDS combined. Despite free access to TB medications in the country, TB kills 300 Indonesians every day.

On Sept. 26, the United Nations will have its first high-level meeting on TB to establish a political declaration aimed to strengthen actions and investments to end the epidemic.

The government has already incorporated TB in the 2015 to 2019 National Medium-Term Development Plan (RPJMN) and orchestrated a multisectoral approach to end TB. Yet the government still needs to identify more domestic and private sources to boost the investment required to end TB.